Amid intense debate over gun control, more than two dozen victims of firearms violence or relatives of victims will be seated in the House gallery as invited guests of First Lady Michelle Obama or members of Congress.
The First Lady invited the parents of recent Chicago shooting victim Hadiya Pendleton, while Connecticut delegation members will bring citizens linked to the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. People affected by the rampage at Virginia Tech and the mass shooting that nearly claimed the life of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona also will be present.

The diversity-loving left is howling over one lone pro-Second Amendment supporter in attendance; Rep. Steve Stockman (R-TX) gave one of his tickets to NRA life member, Motor City Madman Ted Nugent. The presence of law-abiding gun owners disrupts their narrative that the only people who want or need firearms are mass murderers. If only more Republican lawmakers had the foresight to issue such invitations as Stockman's.
Imagine the gallery populated with people like Donna Hopper who used a firearm to defend herself against an intruder or this Dallas woman who had to fend off not one, but two intruders. Martha Lewis, a mom who used a firearm to defend herself and her two daughters would be a stark contrast to the portrait of gun owners Democrats want to paint. What about this 12 year-old girl and her family? She was home alone and had to use a firearm to defend herself against a home intruder. This 18 year-old mother was forced protect herself and her newborn child with a firearm. All of these women and their children would be statistics if not for their Second Amendment right. Is this the "war on women Democrats talked about all last year? Why should their stories go untold?
Why are we only told about the lives lost but never about the lives saved? Americans use firearms more than 2.1 million times a year for self-defense yet this ignored for the rare stories of tragedy. The GOP could have hijacked Democrats' manufactured anti-gun narrative with a bit of foresight and a few invitations. Looks like Nugent may have to bear the responsibility alone in the gallery.

Dana Loesch

Dana Loesch is the author of "Hands Off My Gun” (October 2014, Hachette) and hosts her award-winning, daily syndicated radio show, "The Dana Show: The Conservative Alternative" on Radio America 1-4pm ET. She also hosts “DANA” on The Blaze TV, weekdays at 6pm ET.

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HANDS OFF MY GUN is filled with research and detail. In addition to explaining why the Founding Fathers insisted on including the right to bear arms in the Bill of Rights, Loesch argues that "gun control" regulations throughout history have been used to keep minority populations under control. She also contends that current arguments in favor of gun control are primarily based on emotions and fear.

Dana Loesch hosts her award-winning, nationally syndicated daily radio show, The Dana Show: The Conservative Alternative from Dallas, Texas where she also hosts “Dana” on The Blaze television network. Dana appears regularly on Fox News, ABC, CNN, among others, and has guest co-hosted “The View.” She describes herself as a “conservatarian.”